Crowdmark can be integrated with Learning Management System via the LTI 1.3 standard. This integration provides features such as roster synchronization, team synchronization, and the ability to export grades from Crowdmark into the LMS. To use the integration, you must sign in with your LMS credentials which is linked on your institution’s sign in page on Crowdmark (navigate to https://app.crowdmark.com/sign-in and select your school from the dropdown menu), or by accessing Crowdmark directly from your school’s LMS. After signing in, you can import your courses with Crowdmark by adding a Crowdmark LTI link to a course, then access Crowdmark by clicking the link (which will automatically create a corresponding course in Crowdmark. Assessment creation is all done with within those Crowdmark courses.
Integration with LTI provides many benefits, including synchronization of information to make assessment administration more efficient. Crowdmark and you LMS use LTI to share the following information:
- Courses
- Student roster (including student groups for certain LMS's)
- Team members, including their associated roles
- Grades to the LMS gradebook
Students can sign in to Crowdmark via the LMS or with an email and password here: https://app.crowdmark.com/sign-in. Crowdmark sends emails with links for students to access their assignments and grades. Students can also sign in to Crowdmark to access their open assessments at any time.
Depending on the LMS you are using, you’ll have an option to create a Crowdmark LTI link within your course in your LMS. Once that happens, you’ll be taken to Crowdmark to the corresponding Crowdmark course (which will be created automatically if this is your first time accessing the link). From there the student and teams rosters can be synced and assessments can be created.
Students will be able to access the course via the same LMS LTI link or via their Crowdmark profiles.
Once you are logged into Crowdmark, you may visit the courses list by clicking the 'Courses' link on the left side of the screen. On the courses list, to the right of the courses title, you will see a logo and text similar to “LMS @ My School”. This dropdown menu allows you to switch between the LMS-connected context of Crowdmark and the “standalone” version of Crowdmark.
If you already had a standalone account on Crowdmark before connecting to your LMS, you can switch to the “Crowdmark” context to access your existing courses and assessments. Courses and assessments created in the standalone context cannot be connected to your LMS.
Course are created on demand in Crowdmark via an LTI link that is placed in a course in your LMS.
Once the link has been added you your course, clicking the link will create a corresponding course in Crowdmark, as well as a Crowdmark account (if you do not already have one). Instructions for adding LTI links to LMS courses differs by LMS type and by institution, please see the documentation for your specific school for further information.
Keeping the roster up to date is an important step as it ensures that grades will synchronize properly with your LMS’s gradebook later on. When you sync your LMS student roster, the columns Crowdmark is able to import are:
- Name (or First name Last name)
- Email address
- Student ID
- Section
For certain LMS systems, the Sections column is unavailable from the LMS directly, instead you can do so by importing a CSV using the instructions here. Importing a CSV will not affect further sync with your LMS as long as the student email addresses remain unchanged.
If you have imported custom section information using a CSV, make sure to Ignore the Sections column when updating the roster from your LMS.
- In your course, click Students in the sidebar.
- Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
- If the sync was successful you will see the number of students that were found and be asked to map the LMS data to Crowdmark’s data structure. Crowdmark will guess the mapping but it is recommended to double check. Any columns that do not include student Emails, Names, Student ID Numbers or Sections should be ignored.
- Once everything is mapped correctly, click the Continue button. You will see a list of students that will be enrolled for confirmation.
- Click the Update students button to confirm and enroll the students to your course.
- If you have previously customized Sections using a CSV, you can add sections for new students manually by clicking into the individual student, or you can repeat the CSV process.
You can update your student list anytime to ensure that it’s consistent with the roster in your LMS.
- In your course, click Students in the sidebar.
- Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
- If the sync was successful you will see the number of students that were found and a list of students that will be updated and/or disenrolled for confirmation.
- Click the Update students button to confirm and update the students to your course.
Team members include co-instructors, TAs, graders, anyone who will help with printing, scanning or grading assessments in your course. A description of each role can be found here: What is the difference between team member roles?
- In your course, click Team in the sidebar.
- Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
- You will see a list of the synced team members. Under the Role column, select the role each team member should have. To remove a team member, click the x. For more information, see What is the difference between team member roles?
- Click the Add team members button. Your team members will be added to the course and will each receive an invitation email.
From the Team page, a team member can be removed by clicking the x beside their name. This will remove their access to the course and its assessments but all of their past grading and data on Crowdmark will be preserved.
If you need to invite a printer or uploader who does not have access to your LMS (an off-campus print shop, for example), you can invite them by email.
- In your course, click Team in the sidebar.
- Click the Add by email button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
- Type or paste the printer/uploader’s email addresses in the field. Click the Continue button.
- Under the Role column, select the Printer-Uploader role.
- Click the Add team member button. The printer/uploader will be added to the course and will receive an invitation email.
Scores must be exported from Crowdmark to appear in your LMS’s gradebook. If you make changes to the grades later on, they will need to be exported again to keep the gradebook up to date.
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From your assessment Dashboard, click Results in the sidebar. See the section titled “Send and export grades”.
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Click the Export grades to LMS button to export grades. If there are any issues with the export, you will see a modal window with a summary before you export grades. Crowdmark will not be able to export grades for students who:
- Were imported from Canvas into Crowdmark but have since been removed from Canvas.
- Were added manually in Crowdmark and are not part of the Canvas roster.
- Exist in Canvas but were never added to Crowdmark
To continue, click the Export grades button.